Device-device communication and coordination, coined the “internet of things” (IoT), is primarily accomplished through direct communication between devices via wireless protocols such as Bluetooth, ZigBee, Wifi and 3G and 4G systems, among others. These protocols have the benefit of having high throughput, but have either a short range or require significant power to operate over longer ranges. This results in short battery lives for wireless devices communicating over these types of networks. The Z-Wave protocol, which operates at a lower frequency, improves on these limitations, but still has a limited range of up to 200 meters. The range of a Z-Wave network can be extended via a mesh network, but is currently limited to forwarding data across four hubs. However, a mesh network can be cost-intensive because of the significant amount of hardware and power required. Additionally, many IoT applications require devices to communicate over long distances over which it is impractical or impossible to add range-extending nodes. Thus, for many IoT applications, the significant cost and limited range severely limits functionality.
IoT networks also suffer from security threats. Because most IoT device communication protocols are firmware-based, a network attacker could obtain network information by physically hacking into the device. In some applications, data is software-encrypted for additional security. However, this increases the data packet size and increases power consumption by requiring decryption. Thus, current solutions are impractical for many applications.